In early 2015, I received an invitation from Apple to test a Trove watchOS application in a lab in Cupertino on prerelease Apple Watch hardware. Along with one engineer, Apple granted me one-day access to validate user experiences on a real device shortly before Apple Watch shipped.

In 2014, Washington Post Social Reader rebranded as Trove. The evolutionary experience for Trove was news topics (called troves) that users would promote stories within. This concept encouraged subject matter expertise, and users could follow each others’ unique perspectives on topics through the lens of troves.